The moon's hourly motion across the Earth's shadow in the constellation of Ophiuchus (north of Scorpius)

A partial lunar eclipse took place on June 4, 2012. It was the first of two lunar eclipses occurring in 2012, the second eclipse set to happen on November 28. The moon was about one third covered by the Earth's northern umbral shadow at maximum eclipse. The portion of the moon inside the umbral shadow was illuminated by sunlight refracted through the Earth's atmosphere, rendering it much dimmer and with a reddish hue.

Contents

This lunar eclipse, occurring during June's "Strawberry" full moon[1] was completely visible over Australia, rising over eastern Asia and setting over western North America. New England and eastern Canada missed the entire eclipse since the event began after moonset in those regions. The eclipse was visible in the central United States.

Amongst those in North America, observers in western Canada and the USA had the best views with moonset occurring sometime after mid-eclipse.

This simulation shows the earth at the time of greatest eclipse as viewed from the center of the moon. The sun is seen here as a partial solar eclipse over the Earth's north pole.

This eclipse was one of five lunar eclipses in a short-lived series. The lunar year series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days (Shifting back about 10 days in sequential years). Because of the date shift, the Earth's shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.